You Can Buy Life Insurance on a Shoestring

If you’re in the market for life insurance butthink it costs too much, you may want to thinkagain. Most people overestimate the cost of lifeinsurance by almost three times, says LIMRA, aresearch organization that tracks the lifeinsurance industry.

According to the Life and Health InsuranceFoundation for Education (LIFE), people forgobuying life insurance, because they have otherfinancial priorities. But basic life insurance canbe surprisingly affordable for everyone, evenolder individuals. To find coverage at a goodprice, you’ll want to comparison shop, but thereare other strategies you can use to find goodcoverage.

First, consider group life insurance. If you’reemployed, your employer may offer basic grouplife insurance as a benefit. Premiums can be 10%to 20% less than individual life insurancebecause of enrollment and billing efficiencies.Second, you may want to think about annualrenewable term life insurance, which guaranteesyour insurability for a set period, but comes witha premium that increases each year during theterm.

In the early years of the policy, premiums forannual renewable term life are less expensivethan those for a comparable policy that doesn’thave an adjustable premium. Finally, you maywant to buy as much term life insurance – whichcovers you for a certain period and pays a deathbenefit if you die while the policy is in force – asyou can afford now.

The average cost of basic term life has droppedby about 50% in the last decade due to longerlife expectancy and greater efficiency in productdesign and administration. It’s important toconsider your unique needs when selecting apolicy. There are many types of lifeinsurance, the products vary and there arenuances to consider when choosing a policy. Aprofessional can help you sort through theoptions and choose the policy that’s right foryou.

Randy Bettwww.BetterGroupRealEstate.ca